Your cover reveal provides an opportunity to gain publicity for your book. It can be done any time in the months leading up to a book’s release, but ideally the reveal should be timed to bolster your other marketing efforts, to build buzz as you count down to launch day. There are a number of online resources you could utilize to do a reveal. Here are a few I’ve used in revealing my own book covers.

Reviewer Blogs. If you can find a book blogger or reviewer with a solid following of people who match your target audience, asking the blogger to host your cover reveal can be a great way to connect with potential readers. It can be challenging to find a reviewer with the time and interest to read your book. Hosting a cover reveal does not require as much of a time investment for the reviewer, which means a blogger might be open to featuring you, even if they are not open to doing a review. You might offer a copy of your book or another prize for a giveaway, as an additional incentive for the blogger’s help in connecting you with readers. A giveaway attracts more traffic to the blogger’s site, and generates more exposure for you.

Your Website/Blog. The wonderful thing about revealing your cover on your own site is you don’t have to query anyone. You can post your cover at any time, and there are no limitations on the content you include. In addition to the cover, you can post the book’s description, review blurbs, an excerpt, or even a book trailer. It’s entirely up to you. The downside is that if you don’t have many followers, you might not get as much exposure as you would by being featured on someone else’s blog. The good news is there’s no reason you can’t do both, setting up a cover reveal with a blogger, and then directing traffic from your site to the blogger’s page, and providing the blogger with a link to your page.

Goodreads. If you’ve not yet set up an author account on Goodreads, I highly recommend you do so. Your author profile includes a blog and allows you to post a bio, information about your books, book trailers, and more, all of which is free. One of the best features Goodreads offers is giveaways, which offers exposure to readers. Often readers who enter giveaways end up adding books to their to-read shelves or may later post a review. There are some costs to consider with giveaways, however. You must provide a print copy of your book, and you are responsible for sending the book to the giveaway winner. If you choose to open the giveaway to readers internationally, postage can be expensive, but you will also gain greater access to readers worldwide. This is a fantastic way to reveal your cover and share advance review copies.

Facebook. Creating a Facebook event for a cover reveal has many of the same advantages and disadvantages as posting on your own website. Although you have flexibility in the content you post and in when you hold an event, if you don’t have many connections, your exposure might be limited. You can boost your posts through paid advertising, which is fairly inexpensive (you set the limit on how much you want to spend) and allows you to reach a target audience by defining parameters like age and interests. This can also be an opportunity to generate more likes for your author page.

You could also combine these strategies to have a greater impact. You don’t have to spread yourself thin by posting your cover all over the internet, but you could pick a few of the social media resources you are most comfortable using and extend your reach from there, tweeting about your Goodreads giveaway, or inviting Goodreads connections to your cover reveal party on Facebook, for example. The main things to consider are your goals for a cover reveal, and what you want to invest in time and money. Who is your target audience, and how can you best connect with them? Best of luck generating publicity through your reveal.

If you’ve done a cover reveal, who was your audience, and how did you reach them?